Governmental Reforms and the Absolutism

In the course of Peter the Great's reign, medieval and obsolescent forms of government gave place to effective autocracy. In 1711, he abolished the boyarskaya duma, or boyar council, and established by decree the Senate as the supreme organ of state to coordinate the action of the various central and local organs, to supervise the collection and expenditure of revenue, and to draft legislation in accordance with his edicts. Martial discipline was extended to civil institutions, and an officer of the guards was always on duty in the Senate. From 1722, moreover, there was a procurator general keeping watch over the daily work of the Senate and its chancellery and acting as 'the eye of the sovereign'.